In Jane Austen’s day, vanilla wasn’t a common flavor, flower ice cream  flavors were. When we think of common ice cream flavors today, our minds usually go to vanilla. Back in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, vanilla (which is the fruit of the vanilla orchid—but you probably already knew that…) was pretty uncommon. Far more common flavors were floral ones, including jasmine, orange flower, violet, elder flowers and rose. (Quinzio, 2002) The flavors do sound … Continue reading →

When it comes to ice cream, innovation is tradition, even to the point where vegetable ice cream sounds like a good idea   Ice cream lovers fall into two camps: those who love experimenting with innovative, exotic flavors and the purists, who remain loyal to vanilla.  Wild experimentation is nothing new, it can be traced back to the earliest ice cream cooks. While I’m not averse to experimenting and trying new things, at no time, … Continue reading →